Cantalapiedra La Otea Verdejo 2022

Cantalapiedra La Otea Verdejo 2022

Cantalapiedra Viticultores
$95.00

Grape: Verdejo
Vintage: 2022
Type: White

Sourced from a historic plot of ancient ungrafted bush vines, this white wine showcases a pure expression of verdejo in Rueda. The Cantalapiedra family manages these century-old vines organically in the sandy soils of Villanueva de Duero to ensure low yields. The hand-harvested fruit is pressed directly into six-hundred-liter French oak barrels for a spontaneous native fermentation. It matures for eleven months in wood and another eleven months in stainless steel before an unfiltered bottling.

It shows a straw hue, releasing a perfumed nose of ripe peach, white blossom, and citrus rind. The palate is medium-to-full-bodied and concentrated, displaying a smooth, layered mouthfeel shaped by a precise line of acidity. Clean flavors of green apple fold into an undertone of wild thyme and fennel. The extended lees contact provides a subtle texture that frames the mid-palate cleanly. It finishes dry and persistent, leaving a mouthwatering trace of wet stone.

Cantalapiedra Viticultores is located in La Seca, a village in the heart of Spain's Rueda appellation. The estate is run by father-and-son team Isaac and Manuel Cantalapiedra, with Manuel, a classically trained pianist, now leading the winemaking. They are a vanguard of minimal intervention winemaking in a region dominated by conventional producers. While Rueda is known for a consistent style of Verdejo, Cantalapiedra focuses on producing single-vineyard bottlings that highlight the unique differences in their terroirs. In the cellar, they use wild yeasts for fermentation and add minimal to no sulfur, relying on natural processes to express the character of their vineyards.